Budding career

Last year, a frightening crime occurred on the MoPac recreational trail, near Riley Elementary School. The victim, out for a morning run on the trail, was attacked by an assailant who surprised her from behind. The 21-year old UNL student bravely fought off her attacker, while a bystander walking a dog watched without lifting a finger. After the assault, the victim, tears streaming down her face, had a few sharp words with the dog-walker, who told her he thought it was some kind of joke. It was no joke, it was an attempted rape, and her courage and strength were matched by her power of observation.

During the attack, the victim noted a neck tattoo on the suspect, and she provided us with the spelling. As she struggled with him, she also dislodged a lanyard that was around his neck. He snatched it back, but she had already noticed the Lincoln Northeast High School student ID attached. The School Resource Officer at Northeast that morning, Officer Jason Brownell, recognized the description, and within short order the assailant had been identified. Not surprisingly, he never showed up for class, but we found the 15 year old suspect later that evening and made the arrest.

Last week, another crime occurred along the MoPac Trail, this time in the 3800 block of X Steet. The victim and his wife were awakened around 11:20 by noises in the back of the house, and interrupted a burglary. The house backs up onto the same trail where last year's attempted sexual assault occurred, although it is a little less than a mile away.

Two teenage intruders were in the process of removing their TV and DVD player when the homeowner confronted them. The pair took off and the police were summoned. Officer Justin Roach spotted them a few blocks away, and the chase was on. Justin caught one of the burglars in the foot pursuit across yards and fences. The second suspect provided two of our canines, Beersie-Remo and Kony, with a nice workout, and their handlers, Officer John Clarke and Officer Tyler Dean, with a nice arrest.

That second suspect was the same youth who committed last year's attempted rape. He's 16 now. He still has the distinctive tattoo, and has added a little embellishment. This may help us identify him in the future, because unless something happens that changes his trajectory, he's going to be someone we get to know even better. He was a missing person at the time of the burglary. On September 29, he decided that house arrest wasn't for him, cut the electronic monitoring bracelet off his ankle, and became a missing person. Now he has been found. Here are his arrests by the Lincoln Police Department, in reverse chronological order with the burglary at the top and the attempted sexual assault at the bottom: